Published: Monday March 23, 2009 MYT 11:21:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday March 24, 2009 MYT 12:25:40 AM

Planes crash in Tokyo and Montana, emergency landing in Indonesia(updated)

BUTTE (Montana): There were two plane crashes early Monday morning (MYT), the first involving a cargo plane in Tokyo and the other a light plane carrying small children in the United States.

In Indonesia a passenger jetliner flying at 2,000 feet (600 meters) made an emergency landing Monday after encountering engine failure. The plane with 122 passengers and crew onboard managed to land safely at Batam island in western Indonesia, and no one was injured, said Sriwijaya Air spokeswoman Ruth Simatupang.

In Montana, a small plane -- possibly carrying children on a ski trip -- crashed Sunday as it approached the Butte airport, killing 14 to 17 people aboard, a federal official said. The single engine turboprop nose-dived into a cemetery 150m from its destination.

The aircraft crashed and burned while attempting to land, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus. The plane crashed in Holy Cross Cemetery.

An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board offered few details at a press conference in Butte Sunday night. No cause of the crash was given.

“We are just beginning our investigation,” said Kristi Dunks. “We don’t have a lot of information at this time.

“Certain family members were contacted,” she said. “At this point, I don’t have an exact number.”

The aircraft had departed from Oroville, California, and the pilot had filed a flight plan showing a destination of Bozeman, about 140km southeast of Butte. But the pilot cancelled his flight plan at some point and headed for Butte, Fergus said.

Preliminary reports indicate the dead include numerous children, he said.

“We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids,” Fergus said.

Butte Silver-Bow Sheriff John Walsh said there were a few people at the cemetery at the time of the crash, but no one on the ground was injured. He would not describe witness reports.

“I heard a loud bang,” said Nick Dipasquale, 19, who was working at a gas station across the street. “It sounded like someone ran into the building.”

He said he ran outside to see flames as tall as the trees.

Dipasquale said people who were fueling their cars said they saw the plane flying low, begin a turn, start to wobble and then slam into the ground.

Fergus said the Pilatus PC-12 aircraft was manufactured in 2001. Such planes are certified to carry 12 people.

The plane was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing Inc in Enterprise, Oregon, Fergus said. He didn’t know who was operating the plane.

I. Felkamp is listed in Oregon corporate records as Eagle Cap’s president. Attempts to reach him by phone were unsuccessful.

The flight originated at Brown Field Municipal airport in San Diego on Saturday evening and flew to Redlands, California, where it left Sunday morning for Vacaville, California, according to Flight Aware, a website that tracks air traffic. From there it flew to Oroville, California, and then to Butte. The NTSB could not confirm that information.

“We are still gathering the information of the aircraft, it’s purpose, what they were doing and where they were going,” Dunks said.

In California, Tom Hagler said he saw a group of about a dozen children and four adults Sunday morning at the Oroville Municipal Airport, about 110km north of Sacramento.

Hagler, owner of Table Mountain Aviation, described the children as ranging from about six- to 10-year-olds. He let the children into his building to use the restroom.

“There were a lot of kids in the group,” he said. “A lot of really cute kids.”

Hagler said he showed the pilot where he could fuel his plane, and the pilot said he expected his flight to take two-and-a-half hours. The pilot didn’t file a flight plan at the Oroville airport.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said its investigators were expected to arrive in Butte late Sunday or early Monday.

The crash is the fourth major plane accident in the United States in slightly more than three months.

On Dec 20, Continental Airlines plane veered off a runway and slid into a snowy field at Denver International Airport, injuring 37 people. No one was killed. In January, a US Airways jetliner landed in New York’s Hudson River after a flock of geese disabled both its engines. All 155 people onboard survived. Last month, commuter plane fell on a house in a suburb of Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 passengers and a man in the home.

Before the Buffalo crash there hadn’t been an accident involving a commercial airliner in the United States in which there were fatalities in more than two years.

FedEx crash
In TOKYO, a FedEx cargo plane burst into flames after bouncing off a runway in unusually high winds at Tokyo’s main international airport Monday, killing the pilot and copilot and closing a major runway for several hours.

The flight from Guangzhou, China, skipped along the main runway at Narita Airport before skidding to a fiery halt, according to footage from airport security cameras. Firefighters and rescuers immediately swarmed the plane.

The pilot and copilot -- the only people on board the flight -- were pulled from the cockpit and taken to a local hospital, where they were later confirmed dead.

National broadcaster NHK identified them as 54-year-old pilot Kevin Kylemosley and his 49-year-old copilot, Anthony Stephen-Pino.

FedEx could not immediately confirm details of the crash, spokeswoman Denise Lauer said in an e-mail from the company’s Memphis office. Police could confirm only that the two crewmembers had died.

The plane smashed into the longer of Narita’s two runways, which remained closed Monday morning with all incoming flights diverted, said airport spokeswoman Misuho Fukuda.

Ikuo Uda, a spokesman for Narita International Airport Corp, which manages the airport, said 16 international flights were cancelled, and that the airport was operating with only one runway several hours after the crash.

Unusually strong winds of up to about 76kph were blowing through Narita City on Monday morning around the time of the crash, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Airport officials said it was too early to say whether the strong winds caused the crash.

Local news reports said the plane was an MD-11, a widebody airliner built by McDonnell Douglas and based on the DC-10.

Strong winds and turbulence have caused other recent incidents at the airport. Last month a flight from the Philippines was jolted by severe turbulence as it circled prior to landing, injuring 50 passengers and crew members.

Narita Airport is a major international hub located about 60km east of central Tokyo. It is Japan’s second-busiest airport, after Haneda Airport, a largely domestic hub in Tokyo. -- AP

In Indonesia a passenger jetliner flying at 2,000 feet (600 meters) made an emergency landing Monday after encountering engine failure, airline official said.

The plane with 122 passengers and crew onboard managed to land safely at Batam island in western Indonesia, and no one was injured, said Sriwijaya Air spokeswoman Ruth Simatupang.

The Boeing 737-200 operated by the small commercial airline ran into difficulties shortly after taking off on an 80-minute flight from Tanjungpinang airport on Bintan island to the capital, Jakarta.

The plane was still ascending when crew requested permission to make an unscheduled landing at the nearest airstrip, Batam, said airport official Indah Irwansyah. Batam lies just south of Singapore.

Airline accidents have killed more than 120 people in Indonesian in recent years, prompting the European Union to ban all Indonesian carriers from landing there in 2007.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration downgraded the country's rating to its lower category around the same time.

Sriwijaya Air is one of dozens of privately held carriers to emerge since Indonesia started deregulating the industry in the late 1990s, bringing cheap air travel to the sprawling island nation.

Aviation authorities have warned that rapid growth, weak industry regulation and poor maintenance could lead to fatal accidents.

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